Rather than waiting around for JJ Abrams and his crew to leak plot details, we asked some of our favorite science fiction writers to tell us what they'd do with the new Star Wars movie.

Karl Schroeder

Karl Schroeder

"Episode VII should be called Star Wars: Revolt of the Droids, and be about a slave rebellion by the droids who, after all, appear to be conscious beings but have no rights in either the Republic or the Empire. In this retelling of Spartacus, a battle droid begins removing the restraining bolts from other droids after his own is shot off, and together they form a vast force.

"They are destroyed by New Republic forces in the end, because of internal divisions between those droids that wish to escape from the galaxy and form their own civilization elsewhere, and those who believe that their mission is to free all enslaved sentients in the galaxy. In the course of the rebellion, the existing human and alien characters from the previous movies have to make a moral choice, and since those who were previously the heroes were also unashamed slave-owners, they (meaning Luke, Leia, and Han) side with the New Republic to put down the revolt, while Han and Leia's children side with the droids and end up killed in the end."

Douglas E. Richards

Douglas E. Richards

"In the Terry Brooks novelization of Episode I: The Phantom Menace, the history of the Sith is laid out. An order established thousands of years earlier by a disaffected Jedi who believed the dark side of the force should be fully exploited, the Sith fell to the Jedi because of their inability to play nice with each other, leading to the edict that only one Sith master and one Sith apprentice could exist at a time. But even sequential pairs of Sith were able to create an Empire and bring the Jedi to the brink of extinction. I'd like to see this history described in the film universe as well. And if two Sith at a time can cause such havoc, I'd like to see what an entire organization could do.

"Star Wars 7 could detail the emergence of a dark Jedi who discovered a better way to identify talent just after the events in Star Wars VI, and has now restored the Sith to its roots as an order.

"With respect to characterization, the vast majority of players in the movies were directed to be stiff, bland, and overly formal. What would the first trilogy be without roguish Han Solo and fiery Princess Leia? A bore, even with the great special effects. So I'd like to see more break-the-rules characters with wry senses of humor to counterbalance the Vulcan-like Jedi. After all, every Luke needs a Han, and every Spock needs a Kirk. (I wouldn't normally speak of both iconic universes in a single sentence, but if J.J. can work in both, I figured, what the heck.)"